Nick Hwang, University graduate student, originally studied microbiology at the University of Florida. He never became a doctor.
Instead, he got a bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition from Florida. Then he earned a master’s degree in music composition. Now, he’s a doctoral student studying music composition and experimental music in digital media at LSU.
“In my life I came to the realization that I liked music above anything else,” Hwang said. “Especially studying microbiology.”
Hwang’s work, along with several other LSU students’ pieces, will be featured in the Festival of Contemporary Music tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the LSU School of Music’s Recital Hall. The concert, performed by the Louisiana Sinfonietta, will showcase the skills of the composers LSU has to offer.
Dinos Constantinides, Boyd professor of music and founder of the Louisiana Sinfonietta, believes Baton Rouge has tremendous talent in music.
“Sometimes the public doesn’t get that,” Constantinides said. “There is a lot of good talent in Baton Rouge, and particularly at LSU. That’s why we have this free concert, so everyone can see the talent that we have.”
Alex Wise, a graduate student, composer and conductor whose work is featured in the show, said the concert brings the “composers’ ideas to life.”
“The concert is a collection of works written specifically for this concert by LSU composers,” Wise said in an e-mail.
“These pieces will have gone from dots on paper to a finished work in a matter of four days.”
Hwang’s piece, entitled “Nocturne for String Orchestra,” is based on an Asian story about “a hero who suffers a mortal wound while fighting abroad,” according to the concert’s program. The dying hero asks the moon to send his good wishes to his family. Unfortunately, it’s cloudy that night, so the moon can only be reached when it peeks out from behind the clouds.
“It’s an arrangement from a string quartet piece I wrote,” Hwang said.
Hwang described the piece as emotional and dissonant. The music spreads apart and comes together when the moon disappears and appears from behind the clouds.
Wise’s composition for the concert, titled “,” is a collection of various ideas that Wise describes as fitting for a movie soundtrack.
“It’s an opening title sequence that portrays various characters and moods from a movie that does not yet exist,” Wise said. “One of my favorite types of music is a movie soundtrack. I’ve always enjoyed listening to them both with and without the film.”
Hwang, Constantinides and Wise all agree effort and practice is the best way for aspiring composers or musicians to improve their work.
“One of the misconceptions I feel is in pop culture today is that people think that you can just fool around and be good at it,” Hwang said. “Like anything else, you need to work hard, and if you do, you up your chances of doing well.”
All the composers, students or otherwise, are trying to express a thought through music. Wise said the voyage from that thought to reality is “wonderful.”
“What was an idea three months ago in the heads of myself and my colleagues is now a tangible thing,” Wise said. “The process is incredible because we get to be involved in every step, from the works’ first inception to putting it down on paper to now being rehearsed with very capable musicians.”
Constantinides praised the efforts of LSU’s composers.
“[The composers] wanted to find their own voice. Each of them have an inspiration. Each make their own talented composers,” Constantinides said.
Hwang doesn’t want people to come to the concert with a closed mind. He said that when the words “contemporary” and “orchestra” are put together, people decide whether they will like the music before they hear it.
“Come to the concert with no preconceived notion of what to expect,” Hwang said. “Listen to the music with an open mind. Don’t think you’re showing up to a normal orchestra concert.”
Constantinides said if nothing else, come to the concert to see the brilliant works of seven other University graduate students.
 
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Contact Taylor Balkom at [email protected]